External Hard drives

I want to purchase an external hard drive (USB2) to use with two PCs. One has W98SE and the other has XP. One has USB1 and the other USB2. The drive is to be used for backup purposes and will be 80Gb. Backup software would be useful, but not essential, as I would mainly use the "Send To" option to backup and restore files between the two PCs.

I have researched the market as far as I can and have come up with three possibilities:-

1. Iomega2. LaCie3. Maxtor

Dabs list only the first two and I wondered if anyone has used either of these and, if so, what they thought about them. I phoned one dealer who told me they have stopped stocking LaCie because of "warranty problems", but would not elaborate.

I have a Freecom 120GB USB 2.0 hard drive that I bought from click here

It works fine on my XP system and seems reasonably fast. The one button data-synchronization feature apparently uses MS Binder but I haven't installed that. The driver supplied is for Win98SE but is not needed for XP. However you do need Service Pack 1 for the USB 2.0 capability to be enabled.

In a must-have frenzy I bought an Amacom 40Gb USB 2 external drive. Apart from the price which was a little "up-market" it installed and works fine between all sorts of PC and laptop kits.Initially I did not have USB 2, and buying a cheap card vastly improved data transfer but - overall it does what it should without fuss.

In the absence of any praise for LaCie or Iomega, Maxtor seem the best bet. However, I certainly do not need more than 80Gb. I have barely used 2Gb on the HD of my new PC.

I have found an 80Gb Maxtor on the Dabs site which states that it is compatible with USB1 and USB2. I assume it will work equally well with W98SE and XP?

A couple of questions, please.

1. At present, my 98SE PC has (in addition to floppy), Drive C (HD), Drive D (Zip) and Drive E (CD-ROM). No CDRW, DVD or any other drive. When I install an external HD, will it become Drive F? I have heard that it may takeover letter D and, if so, do the two other drives recategorise themselves?

2. With the Send To option, can one save time by sending a Folder with all its contents, or does one have to send files individually?

3. Is there any danger of picking up a virus, say, from a HD that has been returned and re-sold by the retailer? Silly question, maybe, but only my XP PC is connected to the net, and the other PC does not have any anti-virus software. Initially, the external drive would only be used on the non-internet PC which is owned by my Dad.

1. Not sure as it's a while since I had 98. I think the ext hd became the next letter (f in your case). Anyway, it's no prob.

2. If you get Drive Image (or Ghost) it'll clone as little or as much of hd as you want.

3. Little chance of getting bug as 1st thing they do is format used hd's. (only thing with 98 is you won't be able to format over 32gb without patch at later date + not sure you can format via dos for external device).